Talk to your children about drinking.
Teenagers start drinking for any number of reasons. They may be imitating adults and parental figures in their lives, trying to fit in with friends who drink or trying to draw attention to themselves. Teenagers who drink, especially those who drink to excess, may be seeking to drown out depression, frustration or pain in their everyday lives. Teen drinking is real and very present in almost every community. There are steps you can take to help teenagers stop drinking.
Instructions
1. Uncover stress factors driving teenagers to drink. How you help teenagers stop drinking depends on the reason they started drinking in the first place. Maybe there are stress factors in their lives that are so overwhelming that the teenager seeks escape from depression, pain or abuse with an alcoholic haze. In this case, you need to intervene in some way to protect the teenager or remove him from the source of the stress. You also need to provide tools to help him deal with the stress and problems of life in positive rather than negative ways. Helping might be anything from being a listening friend to helping the teen and the family get into counseling. If the drinking stems from very real abuse, seek assistance from the police and social services.
2. Assist teenagers in changing peer group dynamics. Maybe the teenagers drink because they feel left out or are ridiculed by other teens in their peer group if they don't drink. Friends make a big difference in how a person approaches life and makes choices. This is especially true during teen years when friendships seem absolutely critical. A sneer, a comment or a turned back devastates a teen. On the other hand, a smile, a pat on the back and a listening ear draws in a teen. Teenagers gravitate to where they feel accepted. If this means they have to do something to enhance this acceptance, such as drink, they often will.
When the peer group is one of the reasons the teenagers drink, getting the teens to stop means either changing the dynamics of the peer group or changing friends. A parent, youth group leader or counselor can offer times of fun with the peer group, gaining acceptance and respect. With time, an adult leader may be able to help the teenagers shift the focus of the group into a more positive vein by encouraging them to help out at homeless centers, tutor students with homework and become involved in other community activities. Another method to help teenagers stop drinking is to assist them in changing their friends. Get them involved in new and different activities, sports or social groups. At times, it may take changing schools.
3. Involve the teenagers in an alcohol awareness program such as Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA, a group where alcoholics admit their addiction and help each other recover and deal with the addiction. Keith Scheidies, who has worked with at-risk, delinquent and addicted teenagers for 36 years as a Youth Counselor at the state of Nebraska's Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center, said, "The best way to help teenagers stop drinking is the old fashion way, by taking them through Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA. To motivate the teens to become involved in AA, Scheidies said help them to consider what their lives would be like without drinking and how their drinking stands in the way of their goals.
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